The 13th Doctor - Time for a Change
by Deano858
Summary: The regeneration from the 12th to the 13th Doctor leaves her stranded in a familiar location. - One shot story based on the announcement trailer for the 13th Doctor - - First story in a long time so please let me know what you think -


* I wrote this short one shot story after watching the announcement video for the 13th Doctor played by Jodie Whittaker *

The doctor stumbled into the TARDIS, his grey hair ruffled up high and his hands already glowing with the golden energy of regeneration. He pulled down the black hood covering his head and opened the buttons on the long grey coat he had used to keep out the cold of the snow outside. Walking towards the console he tripped and grabbed the side rail, his breath deep and painful.

"Time for a change…" The doctor said, a smile stretched across his face as he threw back his head in acceptance of his regeneration. The gold energy swirled around his hands and face and spread across his body below exploding with force around him. He stumbled forward onto his hands and knees as the golden glow began to fade.

The Doctor stood up, the hood falling down. From under the hood blonde hair fell out to just above the shoulder of the grey coat. The lined face of the previous incarnation was now replaced by a clear completion with hazel eyes gazing out. Turning around to face the console, The Doctor turned the empty screen around and looked at the reflection. Staring back was a woman, a Time Lady. With a smile she spun the screen around the console and began to turn and switch on many on the controls.

"Well, I wanted a change" She smiled as she walked around the console. She stopped for a second, convulsing in pain as a shot of golden regeneration energy ran down her arm and blasted a scorch mark into the console room floor. The TARDIS began to groan as the center of the console rose and fell. The Doctor stood back from the console, catching her breath as she noticed that the walls around her were fading away and being replaced by a forest. Within a second the blue box was nowhere to be seen and the doctor was left in a leafy clearing.

She stumbled, taking her first step on non-TARDIS ground. Composing herself she reached into the pocket of her grey coat and took out the sonic screwdriver. The device shone with a brilliant blue light as she held it up to the air.

"Earth, 21st Century. It's a Wednesday"  
She turned to either side of her. Noticing that she was alone and talking to herself.

She walked forward her legs heavy and clumsy. She stopped for a moment and leant on the bark of a small tree which stood at the edge of the clearing she had been left in.

"Hello?!" an unfamiliar voice called out  
"Hello" another followed, but this one was the voice of a child.

The doctor turned around to see two people walking towards her. One was an elderly man with short grey hair and a neatly trimmed beard wearing a long brown coat and leaning on a wooden walking stick. The other was a young girl in a blue summer dress and he hair platted to one side.  
The Doctor's hand glowed with golden energy and as she let go of the tree she saw the burnt wood that she had left behind and walked towards them, her steps still uncertain.

"Hello… I'm the doctor" She smiled as she reached the pair on the path leading out of the forest  
"The doctor?" the old man said, glancing down at the little girl.  
"A doctor. Or the doctor" The little girl said walking closer to The Doctor  
"The Doctor. Do you know me?"  
"We know the doctor but you…" The little girl started but was interrupted  
"Never mind that. Come with us, you don't look well" The older man interrupted as he offered his hand to the doctor.  
"Post-regeneration hangover…" The doctor laughed as she slowly walked with them down the path and out of the forest.

The path led to a large stone house, with a glass ceiling on one side. Outside the front of the house was a collection of flowers and bushes surrounding a large Celtic cross.

"You're Scottish?!" The doctor shouted, making both of her companions jump  
"Well obviously" the little girl said, her accent now apparent to the doctor  
"Sorry, I was Scottish for a long time, I've forgotten what it's like to not sound Scottish"  
The girl stared up at the blonde haired stranger with a look of confusion.  
"This place does seem familiar though" The doctor said to herself as she walked through the large wooden front doors.

The elderly man lead them to a wood paneled library, filled the leather bound books of different shapes and sizes. The doctor walked into the room and immediately sat down into a large leather chair next to the door. She was short of breath and the glowing regeneration energy was shooting up and down her body. She closed her eyes and focused her mind, the pain began to subside and the energy retreat.

"Are you okay?" The little girl asked  
"Yeah, just settling into the new set of wheels"  
"I'm Katie. And this is my grandad Bill"  
"Bill. I know a bill, well knew a Bill. Note to self, must find out where Bill went" The doctor said, each sentence running into the next one.  
The doctor looked around at the library again  
"I loved books. Best weapons in the world" She smiled. As she said it, both Bill and Katie stared at each other and the at the wall behind where the doctor was sitting.  
"You are The Doctor!" Katie screamed as she ran up and hugged the doctor's arm  
"Yes I am" She said turning in the chair and then launching to her feet once she saw what they had both been looking at.  
Behind her was a painting of a man in a brown pinstripe suit and blue short. With a pair of black rimmed glasses rested on his nose and a pair of white converse on his feet. Beneath the painting was a small golden plaque which read _"The Doctor – Books! The_ _best weapons in the world_ _!_ "  
"Torchwood house! This is Torchwood house!" She said, turning back to face Katie and Bill.  
"Yes and that is the painting of The Doctor" Bill said, still glancing back and forth between the painting and the woman standing in front of him.  
"Yes and that's me. I mean I've been two others since him, but that's me. 'Tall and skinny brainy specs', me"  
"But you're a girl" Katie said, the confusion written across her face.  
"Now I am. After 'tall and skinny' I was 'floppy hair, big chin' me. Then I was 'old man with the eyebrows' me. And now I'm, well, I'm not sure yet but I'm The Doctor."  
"So you can be anyone" Bill asked  
"Well not anyone, but as a time travelling alien who can change appearance in order to stay alive I'm not bound to one gender. How boring would that be?" She said, smiling at them both  
They both smiled back, wonder filling their eyes.  
"wow…" Katie said, her mouth wide open and her eyes fixed on the doctor.  
"Now if this is Torchwood House then you still have the telescope"  
"Yes but nobody has touched it since you were last here" Bill answered  
"Good, nobody should have broken it then" The doctor said as she dashed to the other side of the room and opened the double doors rushing out and down the hallway.

Bill and Katie ran after the doctor, her coat drifting back as she ran and her blonde hair waving from side to side as she sprinted to the large glass tower at the end of the house.

As they reached the room they found her shining a small blue light onto the different parts of the telescope. A high pitched whirring noise filled the air every time the light came on.

"What are you doing?" Katie asked, beating her grandad to the question  
"Well this telescope was made for collecting light to fight a werewolf, so I am going to reconfigure it slightly to collect a signal to find my ship"  
"Signal? Ship?" Bill asked  
"My TARDIS' signal. Big blue box which I came here in"  
The doctor paused and looked at them, holding the sonic in front of her.  
"This device is a part of my ship, the TARDIS. So if I can collect all of the signals from nearby, the sonic will be able to match the signal of my ship and tell me where is it"  
"Like a car key in a car park" Bill said, a grin across his face  
"Kind of" the doctor laughed back as she placed the sonic at the narrow eyepiece of the telescope. She pressed down the sonic and the blue light shone through the mirrors and the high pitched noise echoed around the chamber.

Within a few seconds it stopped and the sonic made a small 'ding'. The doctor held it up in front of her and looked at the readout.  
"There we go. She is just outside, north north east of the house in another bit of forest" The doctor said.  
As she went to leave the room she stopped and leant on the frame of the door. She took a deep breath and then started to walk again, the pain subsiding as her body settled down to its new form.  
She walked from the room with Bill and Katie behind her. They walked through the hallway of the house and out into the garden once again  
"Why did your ship leave you here" Katie asked as she ran up beside the doctor  
"Well, the last few times I changed my face I made a bit of a mess when I did. Not my fault may I say. I think she was afraid I would do it again so when she saw that I wasn't done yet she went to a safe distance"  
"But she won't do it again?"  
"No, I'm better now" The doctor said. But she wasn't certain herself. She could still feel the rush of regeneration energy pulsating through her body it was fading but still rushing around her.  
The three of them stopped on the edge of the forest.  
"I need you to wait here. It's better if I go find her by myself"  
"but.." Katie interrupted but was stopped by her grandfather's hand on her shoulder  
"The doctor is busy Katie. She needs to go"  
The doctor knelt down in front of Katie.  
"You stay here with your grandad and I'll be back in a minute or two. Promise"  
"and to prove it, you keep hold of this till I come back" The doctor said as she took the sonic screwdriver out of her pocket and placed it in Katie's hand.  
Katie smiled and the doctor rose back to her feet and walked into the forest.

She pulled up her hood as she ducked under the low branches and stepped forward into a small clearing. As she walked across she could feel a spark of energy on her hand. She walked forward and past a small pile of metal in the middle of the grass. She stepped forward and stopped just before a broken wall and held out her hand, the sparks of energy gathered together and the TARDIS key appeared in her hand with a crackle of sparks. She held the key and pulled down her hood as she heard the familiar noise of the TARDIS materializing in front of her. She smiled as she stepped forward over the broken wall to the blue police box. She placed her hand on the panel of the front door.  
"Hello you" she smiled as she pushed the key into the locked and the door opened in front of her.  
Within a few seconds the blue box vanished from view again and the tress settled as the air fell silent.

Katie and bill stood at the edge of the forest waiting. As they waited the air began to fill with a low wheezing sound and the air around them began to grow into a strong wind. Right in front of them a blue wooden police box appeared in view. The door opened and the doctor stood waiting for them in the doorway

"How long was I gone?" She asked  
"105 seconds. I counted" Katie said  
"Good. I have a bad track record for timekeeping after regeneration. 105 seconds is better than 12 years" She joked as she opened the second door and stood aside to let them in.

The both walked in, mouths open wide and heads spinning to take in all of the details  
"its massive!" Katie said  
"It is" The doctor laughed as she closed the doors behind them.  
Katie ran up to her  
"Where's the kitchen?"  
"Upstairs"  
"Does it have a garden?"  
"Loads"  
"And a sweet shop"  
"of course. Though mostly jelly babies"

Katie turned back and ran around the console. Bill simply stood at the end of the entrance gangway and stared.  
"It's all true. Everything we were told about you" he said, wiping a tear from his eye  
The Doctor stood back and smiled as the pair explored the console room together.

A few minutes later and Bill and Katie were back in the garden outside Torchwood house.  
"Thank you for your help. You were the first faces that this face saw. I won't forget it" The Doctor said shaking Bill's hand  
"It's been our pleasure hasn't it Katie" Bill said  
Katie smiled and gave the doctor a hug  
"Now you behave yourself for your grandad"  
"I will. Promise. Can I be a doctor one day?" Katie asked  
"Katie, I've been around long enough to know that anybody can be anything that they want to be. And you would be a brilliant doctor" She said, hugging the little girl and then standing back into the doorway of the TARDIS. She waved, then turned and closed the door. A few seconds later the blue box began to vanish from site with the familiar whir of engines and bustle of air. Katie and Bill walked back to the house.

"I want to be just like The Doctor when I grow up grandad." She said as they stepped into the front door.


End file.
